


The Woodsman and The Sapling

by KlixAndSpaesis



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Blood, Death, Demons, F/M, Fighting, Gore, axes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-18
Updated: 2015-01-28
Packaged: 2018-03-08 02:20:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3191657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KlixAndSpaesis/pseuds/KlixAndSpaesis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was the game that started it all. A simple retro game that looked innocent enough as it started out.</p>
<p>Jade walked into the kitchen, yawning. It was early morning and she'd promised the others a picnic the night before and she was not about to disappoint. As she turned on the light's in the kitchen, she became aware of another presence behind her, every instinct told her to run, and she was afraid she might've jumped a little, but when she turned, it was John, standing there with a blank look on his face, smiling slightly. She nearly smiled in relief, but her smile dropped. </p>
<p>Whatever had possessed John to carry around an axe?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Game

“Hey! Roxy! No! Give that back!”

“Nope, you are too precious without these things.”

Roxy pranced away from Jane, who was chasing after her, wielding her strife specibus threateningly at her, “Give me back my glasses!” Roxy held the glasses high over her head and skillfully leapt over the back of the couch, landing stealthily in a cat crouch before setting off at a run. As she leaped over the couch, a blond spiked head ducked down hurriedly, “Jesus fuck Lalonde! Watch it!”

“Sorry Dirk, I’m kinda busy!”

“Roxy get back here right now!”

Jane maneuvered around the couch, chasing Roxy down the hall and crashing into a very confused Jake along the way. “Sorry Jake, but PLEASE move aside, I don’t have the time.” Jake raised an eyebrow, looking at Dirk for support, but he just shrugged his shoulders unhelpfully and said, “Lalonde is up to her fucking ears in mischief. Don’t ask me what else has got up Jane’s panties.” Jake smacked his forehead as he came to sit next to the other man, “I’m beginning to regret inviting you guys over to my house.”

“Deal with it English.”

“Yeah, you deal with our coolness which practically oozes from our every pore, after we’re gone, you’re gonna regret letting us go.” A new voice piped in from the hallway. And there stood, in all his glory of ‘ironic’ pajama’s featuring hearts. Two sets of eyebrows raised at his entrance. “Oh Dave, seriously? Why the hell are you wearing pajama’s? It’s in the middle of the afternoon!” jade said with an incredulous expression on her face as she stepped out from behind him, and she regarded him with awe, looking him up and down. “Strider’s need their beauty sleep Jade, look at this beauty.” Dave struck a pose, making kissy lips and leaning against the wall. Dirk threw up his hands, rolling his eyes behind his shades, “I’m done being related with you. Bye. I’m out. I’m just so fucking done.” Dirk walked to the window and proceeded to throw himself out, but Jake grabbed his hips just before he went all the way out, “Don’t Dirk! Someone help me with this, he weighs a ton!”

“Hey!”

The situation was ignored though, Jade taking a picture of Dave posing in his pajama’s and quickly sending it to Rose and John. “Shit, did you just send that to Rose and John.”

“Yup!”

“Shit! Jade, give me your phone!”

“Nope, too precious!” with that Jade was off at a running start, Dave quickly scrambling after the green eyed girl while Jake struggled to bring in the older Strider. “Dirk get your ass in here!”

“I’m done with living Jake, my brother has shamed me in too many ways possible for me to even survive in the world without everyone looking at me and knowing I’m related to that embarrassing dork-“

“John! Thank heavens! Come and help me with this problem I seem to have become entrenched in.” Dirk’s death speech was promptly interrupted by Jake turning to see John enter the room checking his phone’s messages and snickering to himself. John looked up and saw the predicament; or rather the eldest Strider’s bottom half lying on the window sill with Jake trying to pull the other half in. John shrugged and came over, helping the green eyed man pull in Dirk, who was still trying to get out the window. “God! Why are you so heavy Dirk?”

“I’m not heavy!”

“You so are! You weigh heavier than my battle hammer. Who would’ve thought, a skinny guy like you could weigh more than a ton!”

Dirk’s voice sounded affronted, as he twisted to look at the two boys holding him inside and he momentarily stopped struggling, allowing the two to drag him inside, “Well, if you’re done talking about my weight, I think I’m going to swim back to Houston.” With that he was leaping out the window and crashing into the underbrush and thick trunked trees. Jake groaned and jumped out after him, muttering, “the idiot’s going to get himself killed…” and he turned to John who looked exasperated, “I’m sorry John, tell Rose that dinner might have to be postponed, I’m so sorry.” With that he launched himself out the window after Dirk, calling his name, “Dirk!”

***

“Yeah! He just threw himself out the window like a complete asshole. I mean, I didn’t know he was so sensitive about his weight, but really, you’d expect that kind of weight to be at the end of dumbbells.”

“Yes John, I understand your feelings of unhappiness, but you’ve got to understand, Dirk is a sensitive person,” Rose said distractedly as she dropped in the carrots into the pot, “can you pass me those leeks please?” John gave her the leeks, continuing to talk, “And did you see the picture jade sent? Ha ha, I mean, Dave wearing those pajama’s were probably his attempt at being ironic.”

“Dave just tries too much in the art of being ‘ironic’ that the meaning has been lost entirely on him.” Rose sat down at the table, dramatically putting a hand to her head, “I think I and my half brother need to have a talk about this worrying behavior.” John gasped and fell to his knee’s, weeping uncontrollably, “No! This can’t be! You’ll be able to cure him, no Doctor Lalonde?” Rose patted his head, standing up and looking resolute, “Worry not, John, I will cure him, I will be done by the time the soup has finished.” She walked off and John paled. He quickly grabbed his phone and quickly started pestering Dave.

\--ectoBiologist [EB] has begun pestering turntechGodhead [TG]\--

EB: run dave!!

EB: rose is coming to get you!!

TG: shit all the bitches be out for my plush ass

TG: thanks man

TG: oh shit shes here gotta run

\--turntechGodhead [TG] has stopped pestering ectoBiologist [EB]\--

EB: i’ll buy you flowers for your grave!

Dave turned and ran. “Shit, shit, shit! Rose, go away!”

“You sound like you were expecting my arrival, ah. I see. I will have to speak to John after this.”

\--turntechGodhead [TG]began pestering ectoBiologist [EB]\--

TG: you better start running too man rose is on your ass too

TG: i think i’ll be attending your funeral in heaven

TG: ill meet you there

EB: oh man!

\--ectoBiologist [EB] is now an idle chum!--

Dave ran faster than he would’ve ever dreamed, but Rose was always there, a step ahead of him and each time he thought he lost her, she was always in the next room, sitting down, looking smug and unruffled. Her smile was absolutely evil. “Give up Dave, resistance is futile.”

***

Dinner that evening was cheerful, Jane had gotten her glasses back and Roxy was down with an incredible headache, “That spoon beats the shit outta you.” was her only comment as she came into the kitchen nursing her head, but it didn’t wipe the smile off her face, in fact, it looked like she was ready to steal anyone’s eyewear at the moment. Dirk was wisely keeping his glasses in his pocket, well out of reach of Roxy’s hands and was casually talking to Jake, they had both run into something at the other end of the island, making them come back scratched and dirty, but in a considerably better mood. Rose and Jade were talking to each other cheerfully, while John and Dave were caught in a serious conversation about which flowers they wanted on their graves after this was all over.

Finally Jake and Jade stood up, “Thanks guys for coming over-“ “We’re glad you could make it and its great we’re getting along-“ “Honestly I’m kind of regretting I didn’t ask you to stay longer.”

Dave raised his hand and shouted, “Called it!” and Jake rolled his eyes, slumping slightly. Roxy snorted into her glass of ‘totes unalcoholic cider’ and gave Dave a thumbs up from across the table. The rest of the table erupted into chuckles and giggles and it erupted into full out laughter when Jake glared at them, “Traitors!” he said, “All of you!” But he joined in the laughter soon after.

When the table had been cleared, they moved to the living room and they simply sat chatting with one another before Jake announced that he was going to bed early, “I have things to do tomorrow,” he said yawning, “I and Dirk saw something rather interesting back there, and by all intents and purposes I intend to go there and explore.” With that he gave a resolute nod and headed off to bed, Dirk following after him, grumbling to himself, “The idiot’s going to get himself killed…” which made John stifle a laugh because that was exactly what Jake had said not too long ago when Dirk had launched himself out the window. But whether he’d heard him or not, he didn’t react simply stalking after Jake into the shadows of the hallway. An hour later, Roxy threw herself over the back end of the couch groaning loudly, “Jaaaaade, IIIIIII’mmmmmm booooorreeed! Don’t you have ANYTHING else to do in here?” She rolled over and popped up from behind the couch, looking disappointed, “I mean, your house is totes amaze and all that, but I’m gonna be jumping at anything mildly interesting at this rate.”From their corner John and Dave were in an intense battle of online Tetris with each other on their phones, and the only sound that could be heard was the cheesy music and the sounds of matching rings and beeps, but they looked up hopefully at Roxy’s proclamation, it was getting rather late but they were expecting a little more than companionable silence. Jade looked thoughtful for a moment, stopping her knitting with Rose for a moment, “I don’t think so…Oh yeah!” She scrambled to her feet and hopped out of the room past Jane who’d passed out on the couch and was whiffling softly in her sleep, a blanket tucked under her chin. Now everyone in the room was looking at to where jade had gone off to fetch something, it was a bit interesting, and their attention had been captured. They could hear Jade moving about and talking to them in a half shout so as to not wake the other occupants, “Yeah, I totally forgot about this! I got it this morning in the mail from some person, I don’t even know why, but I haven’t played it yet, it’s a game of some sort…” She entered the room holding something small and plastic in her hands looking a bit befuddled, “Here it is,” she held it up and there was a picture of a cartoon drown man in a red flannel shirt facing a small plant, it had glowing red eyes placed on a leaf for a head and leaves for arms, and small flimsy roots for feet and legs.

The graphics from the front cover looked like it was from Legend of Zelda.

Roxy groaned and rolled her eyes into her head, flopping dramatically on the couch. “I can’t!” She wailed, flailing her arms, “I don’t think I can play that game without going crazy. I’m going to bed and I think I’ll be joining Jakey on his expedition.” She walked out of the room, but not before giving Jade a little hug and saying thank you for giving the option, but she was tired too. Roxy dragged Jane off to bed with her, asking Dave for help because Jane refused to wake up on the first shake. After the trio stumbled off to bed Jade sighed and put the game down on the table, going to roll up her knitting, “I’m sorry guys,” she said, sticking the knitting needles into the green yarn unceremoniously, “Today’s been a bit uneventful, but I think we’ll have more things to do tomorrow! I think I’ll wake up early to make breakfast and we can all go out for a picnic in the forest, it’ll be loads of fun, I didn’t ask you to bring your swimming clothes for no reason…” she trailed off, putting the yarn in a safe place so that no one would sit on it by accident and get into a lot of pain. She looked apologetic at John who was inspecting the game cover with an air of interest, Rose who was also packing her knitting slowly and at Dave who walked back into the room from helping Jane into bad. There was a black lipstick mark on his cheek, supposedly where Roxy had smooched him for his help, and he was rubbing at it furiously. “So what happened while I was helping the damsel in distress?” He asked casually as he walked into the room and glancing at the game. “jade and myself are getting ready for bed, it seems that tomorrow we have an expedition to attend,” Rose said as she gathered her things and walking towards the hallway, “I’ll see you in the morning then.” Then she was gone, melting into the shadows. Jade lingered for a little longer, looking at John and Dave who were left standing in the living room, John still looking at the game curiously. “Are you two going to bed or…?” Jade gestured to the hallway. John looked up from the game as if waking from a daze, “What? Oh, no, I think I actually want to play this game, it looks kind of interesting.” Dave took it from him and read the title, “The Woodsman and the Sapling. Huh. It doesn’t look all that promising John, I think you can be playing this all on your own, I’m not really seeing what you’re seeing in this.”

“Come on Dave!” John whined, “It’s a two player game, and how can I play it without my best bro?” Dave glanced between John’s pleading eyes and Jade’s tired ones, before h finally caved in and sat down, waving to Jade, “You can go on to bed, me and John are gonna rock this game so hard that it’ll never get up on its feet again.” Jade sighed but walked out, leaving the two boys on their own. John hummed happily and took out the CD in the game sleeve, “I’m going to be downloading this first on my computer, so you can go grab your computer.”

“Yeah, no problem.” Dave moved out of the room and went to fetch his computer and John put the CD into the CD player and pushed it inside. There was silence at first and then his computer hummed and he could hear the CD spinning inside as his computer read the disk. He didn’t know why, but the game made him feel excited, it made him feel anxious. Maybe the game wasn’t all it seemed, the blurb at the back was short and simple; a village calls for the help of a Woodsman far, far away to help with a mysterious outbreak of a disease. Between the Woodsman and the Sapling, who will survive? For some reason it had intrigued him. He didn’t know why. John quickly skipped through the essentials, downloading, Terms and Agreements, Accepting, yada yada. Finally, the game window popped up in the middle of the screen and John couldn’t help but let out a little happy sigh escape his lips. Where was Dave? It couldn’t be that hard to just grab his computer and walk back. He fiddled with his socks and fidgeted a little, humming to himself to pass the time. _Where on earth was Dave?_ It’d been hardly two minutes but John felt himself getting antsy already. Dave couldn’t have just gone to bed had he? Then Dave appeared around the corner of the hall, hefting his laptop on his shoulder looking bored, but under carful observation, he looked nervous. Scared even. John noticed and furrowed his brows questioningly. Dave ignored his glance and set his computer down, “You gonna give me that CD or what John?” At the mention of the game, John’s eyes lit up and he gestured frantically for Dave to come over, “Come on! I’m going to be playing the game without you at this rate!”

“Yea, yeah. Egbert, don’t get a twist in your panties.”

John passed Dave the disk and he grabbed it, putting it in his laptop and for a moment, there was silence while Dave started clicking around with his mouse. John watched his face intently from behind his own screen. He could see the screen reflected in his sunglasses, why he insisted on wearing them at even this hour was mystifying, but he could see pretty much everything on his screen from his glasses, just slightly distorted. From his view, John saw the game window pop up on Dave’s screen and he saw Dave’s eyebrows move together for a brief moment in confusion, and John sighed, “What is it?” Dave glanced up from his screen, startled, “Huh? Oh, yeah, just closing my porn.” John made a disgusted face and one of disbelief, “Dave! Come on! Stop beating around the bush and let’s play the game!”

“Yeah…yeah. Just wait a couple of seconds.” There was a falter in Dave’s voice and he removed his shades, staring at his screen, his poker face etching its way back into his features. Then he looked up a small smile smirk on his lips and his red irises burned into John’s blue ones, “Ready to get your ass kicked Egbert?”

“You’re on!” John pumped his fist in the air and settled his fingers over his keyboard and clicked Play. But there was a little niggling thought at the back of his mind, _why did Dave remove his shades?_


	2. The Woodsman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All necessary editing and verbal vocabulary and grammer will be corrected if there are any. I'm so sorry guys!
> 
> But I love you guys, I was reading the comments and you actually made me cry so hard and tears of gratefulness cause y'all are such beautiful people, T^T Thank you for those comments!
> 
> All necessary changes to the text has been corrected!   
> GLUB!

Welcome to The Woodsman and The Sapling!

The bubbly white text rolled out onto the screen and John read the text quickly, clicking his mouse to get to the next line of text.

Choose your character!

John looked up at Dave, “Hey have you gotten to the character screen yet?” Dave nodded, “Yeah, you know what? I think I’m calling dibs on the plant thing, it’s ironic as hell.” His mouse clicked as he selected the plant. Immediately, the plant on John’s screen went dark, red text appearing over the sprite, TAKEN. “Fine,” John pouted, “I’ll take the Woodsman and chop your skinny ass.” Dave’s eyebrows shot up and he regarded John with a look of disbelief, “Jesus, what’s gotten into you John? You seem…different.”

“Really?” John asked distractedly, clicking the next button. When he looked back up, Dave was looking back at his screen, so he ignored the question, Dave was the weird one! He was acting all strange, like he was unsettled about something, maybe he and Jade were discussing about something…oh! Maybe Jade was upset about Roxy kissing him! John snickered to himself, earning him a glance from Dave, but he didn’t say anything except for grinning. Oh Dave! He was probably trying to start things up with Jade again. Dave interrupted his thoughts, “Hey Egbert, when you’re done giggling like a schoolgirl, you might wanna grab your headphones, the story has sound.” Dave was at the story already? John skipped through the congratulations quickly to catch up with Dave and grabbed his earphones and plugged them in, quickly stuffing them into his ears.

A long, long time ago, there was an enchanted forest ruled by a vengeful demon. Under the demon’s rule, the forest became one with the villager’s, luring them deep into its depths, far, far away from where they could ever be found. And they never returned, lost forever to the depths of the forest. The demon had once been a god, it had raised the forest from long ago, but the god had been infected with hate and loathing, and had turned its back on its people.

At night, the tree’s would walk into the villages, laying wreak and havoc in their wake.

Then one night, a cry was heard as the demon laid a curse on the village, inevitably turning them to tree’s. There was no cure.

John ‘hmm’d’ and looked up to see what Dave was seeing, but Dave was staring intently at his screen, propping his head up with a hand, trying to look bored, but he was clearly paying attention to whatever was being said on his end. The narrative continued.

“Woodsman come help us!” The people of the village shouted, “Woodsman, come to our aid! Save us!”

The white text came onto the screen again and John clicked his mouse, suddenly jittery with nerves- it felt amazing. He got the first look of his sprite when he started playing as the woodsman. It was in third person, he was staring at the back of a red flannel shirt and black hair that was styled in windblown tufts, and if he turned it slightly, he could see striking blue eyes and a white T-shirt and khaki coloured jeans. John thought that the Woodsman looked like him. The resemblance was striking, but the Woodsman was a lot older, black stubble reaching around the man’s chin up to his sideburns and a fuller jaw. John looked up to see Dave’s face, but it was impassive, and he was clicking around with his mouse rapidly, like he was trying to skip through something, and he could faintly hear Dave’s key’s clacking as he moved around. John moved his character around in circles, testing out the control’s, and moved towards the entrance of the village.

When he entered the village, a villager approached him nervously, there was a tree growing from the top of his head and John clicked ENTER to interact. The interaction box popped up with a black background and white text.

“Are you the Woodsman?”

ENTER

“I’m so glad came!”

ENTER

“The Eternal Sapling has put a curse on our village out of it’s hate and spite for humans.”

ENTER

“We ask of you to destroy to destroy the Eternal Sapling, thus raising the curse upon us.”

John raised his eyebrow, his finger poised over the enter button. “What? I don’t even get a choice?” Dave glanced up and John waved him off, “It’s nothing.” And he pointed vaguely to his screen. Oops, he must’ve said it louder than he intended. Dave looked back at his screen, rapidly clicking the keys. Whatever.

ENTER

The screen panned out and then it zoomed in on the Sapling, which was peeking out from behind a broken down wall. There was a moments silence and then the Sapling began to run, Dave immediately smashing down a key and pressing his lips into a thin line. The text flashed across the screen “CHASE THE SAPLING!” John tapped the up key and his character set off at a slow jog, removing his axe from behind his back. The Sapling was unsurprisingly swift on its little roots, considering Dave was controlling the small sprite- Dave somehow always worked magic with game charaters and made them move just like he did in real life, always flash stepping when speed was needed. John looked up irritated, “Dave!” Dave didn’t look up from his screen, but his eyes were visibly dilated. He looked a little startled. Dave glanced up quickly, but his eyes flicked back to his screen, trying to multitask, “Yeah Egbert? Too fast for you?”

“Fuck you Dave! Slow down!”

“No way in fucking hell.”

John was determined to catch the little Sapling which was scurrying away. The suddenly his path was being blocked by a villager, and his progress was halted, behind the villager he saw the Sapling disappear into the forest. The villager was almost completely encased in branches and leaves and he could just make out the face of the villager who was sobbing. John clicked the enter buton to quickly interact with the sobbing villager. “Chop me down Woodsman! The tree controls me by the Sapling’s wish, I beg of you, chop me down!”

ENTER

The screen turned grey and instructions popped up on the screen.

To use the weapon: AXE press the ‘A’ key.

John pressed the A key and the Woodsman brought his axe down on the villager, and an HP bar popped up above the villager’s head and John nearly snorted with laughter. He clicked the A again and the HP bar depleted to zero almost immediately and the villager’s sprite pixilated and blinked out. At this John promptly started to chuckle, it was so cute! It was like all those old games he’d played when he was a little kid, and when he looked up to see Dave’s expression, he laughed harder, why was Dave looking so horrified? He’d have to ask him later, he had a Sapling to catch. Through the course of the next wave of villagers, he learnt new ‘moves’, D to dodge, S to strike, W to whack, it was kind of funny to go through the game like this, it was fairly easy to axe down the villagers like this, and John couldn’t deny he was having fun, because he could see the Sapling now every once in a while and it encouraged him to try to move faster. But it was rather infuriating that his character could only move at a slow jog every time, a slow, plodding walk that just took forever to reach another point in the game. Every once in a while he would throw in a small comment, having small talk with Dave and Dave would reply with grunts and ‘hmms’ so John just kept to himself mostly, he laughed when Dave started rapidly clicking his keyboard and mouse, swiping his finger back and forth on the touchpad, saying a small, “Mother fuck,” under his breath. After his clacking had subsided, he’d given John a glare, fully intensified without his shades. But John just snorted and brushed it off, sometimes it was easier if Dave would just loosen up a bit. He was just like his brother, holding everything in like a dam, and it would be incredibly generous of them to realize that the dam had cracks in it. Oh shit, why did this villager have a machete -

When he reached a cut-scene, John muttered a hissed out, “Yesssss…” because his HP was dangerously low after the last villager had came armed to the teeth with pitchforks. An achievement popped in the corner of his screen, YOU HAVE REACHED A CHECKPOINT! John clenched his fists in a small moment of glory and stretched. There was a loading screen, slowly loading. There was a little gif of the Woodsman chopping wood on the stump of a tree while the loading bar slowly filled up with green. John looked up and watched Dave to see if he’d reached a loading screen as well and was probably resting, but Dave looked concerned, and his finger was still clicking his mouse, huh. Maybe his game play as the Sapling was longer.

LOADED!

The cut-scene started out by panning out and overlooking a giant clearing. There was an almost Godzilla sized tree in comparison standing in the Woodsman’s way, and ugly snarl on its features depicted by holes in the obviously ancient tree’s middle.

CLICK

“Woodsman, stop! Wha- - - ---@$^^$%@*())*&%&^” white text rolled out on the screen and John was startled for a minute, he’d never seen the subtitles of the game so lost in translation in the game before, maybe it was just a bug in the game? The HP bar above its head read, “First Boss: Amber” Oh, the first boss already? It was a little weird, he thought that maybe it would’ve been like other retro games where it was like hit, trade hit, hit, trade hit, and so on, like Pokémon or something, but this was an actual move-around-and-hit. Huh. The Woodsman drew his axe and John made the Woodsman slowly, infuriatingly, jog forwards, advancing towards the large tree. The tree made a sort of sound that sounded distressed, but it was horribly distorted and it sounded almost beastly. John pressed the A button and the tree dodged back with surprising swiftness, but it didn’t attack, maybe it was trying to figure him out? John chased after the tree, swinging the Woodsman’s axe around, the tree was making horrible garbled sounds, some that sounded like it was telling the woodsman to stop- but it was hard to tell. It was getting increasingly tiring and John was going more for strikes, but they hardly ever touched it, it kept spinning around, groaning something. “Fight me already!” John hissed between his teeth as he smashed down the S key again. He could see the opening in the trees behind the giant tree, and once or twice, he tried to go through, but the tree was always there, blocking him.

John finally cornered the tree into the opening, and clicked the A key. He expected the tree to dodge, but this time, it reached around its (shoulder?) and took a huge ass boulder to block the movement of the Woodsman’s axe, sparks flew and John didn’t notice anything about that. John grinned, finally! Finally the stupid tree was making its move! John pressed the D key and his character moved back, the tree looked tense now, but it still looked upset, if tree’s could look upset, maybe it was the shape of the mouth. John chuckled at that, the face of the tree reminding him of carving Jack-o’-lanterns with Jade. Maybe he could show the game to Jade tomorrow; the game was actually pretty fun, except when the first boss stopped dodging all the time! But enough about Jade, he had a boss to defeat.

John moved the Woodsman towards the tree, axe poised and ready, his finger poised over the A key, but when he was about a few meters distance of the tree, it roared, a pixely, indistinct howl and it threw the boulder at him. The giant rock hurtled towards him, faster and smoother than any of the other movements in the game had been. Oh fuck! John stabbed down the D key and his character moved effortlessly to the left and upon pressing the up key, the Woodsman started moving forwards, the tree was now also watching him closely. Which was a little unsettling, how could a tree be watching him carefully?

What happened next was a little surprising, especially for John, because all of a sudden his character was spinning backwards and then the Woodsman was lying down, and was presently trying to get up, there was blood on his shoulder and the Woodsman’s HP was dropped down slightly. What? The tree was throwing down a tree shaped like a cannon and it was charging towards him at full speed. Get up faster Woodsman! John pressed the D and the Woodsman rolled out of the way of the tree’s charge. That was close! Immediately, John’s finger found the A button and the axe came down on the tree’s root, slashing it across it in a brutal gash. The tree’s HP went down sharply and the tree collapsed with a high pitched keen.

John blinked, that was another weird thing. The damages actually affected the characters in this game. It was…actually pretty cool. John pressed the A key again and hacked the tree again, around its middle, and the HP dropped all the way down to a ten. It was awfully easy. Then a little flashing sign in red popped up on the screen, YOU HAVE OBTAINED ITEM: MATCHES (6). Then another sign popped up.

Light the boss on fire to deliver the finishing blow!

USE THE ITEM: MATCHES (6)?

“Umm…okay?”

ENTER

The Woodsman made the subtle action of tossing a match onto the tree’s fallen body and the tree was up in flames in an instant, and over the sound of the crackling flames, a louder scream of agony could be heard over it and John had to take off his headphones as the scream nearly busted his eardrums. He took this chance of a break to look up and see Dave’s face, which was closed and withdrawn to a look of horror and silent pity. Maybe something was happening over there on his screen that was particularly touching. After the tree’s HP disappeared in a flicker, John tentatively put the earphones back on, listening for any deafening sounds, but the quiet background music of the game had returned and was playing peacefully in his ears. John gave a sigh of content and breathed in but nearly gagged, smelling burning flesh and blood and ash, but the smell was gone, replaced by the clean scent of Jade’s home, like grass and freshly laundered sheets. What was that just now? He didn’t get to really think on it as the opening in the tree’s looked rather inviting now with the tree out of the way. John pressed the up key and walked his character towards the entrance, only to find it blocked, John groaned, but the prompt popped up, PRESS A KEY TO PASS THROUGH.

John pressed the A key and the tree shuddered at first, refusing to fall down. John impatiently pressed the A key again, and the tree groaned.

PRESS W KEY

He pressed the W key and the Woodsman did a rather new animation, spinning back and kicking out and the tree fell down with a tremendous crack. Wow! The Woodsman was kind of cool in his own way!

YOU HAVE REACHED A CHECKPOINT!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the short chapter here, this story is turning out longer than I though it would be.  
> I'm gonna be trying to inform you guys as much as I can through Dip about my progress, see you then guys!
> 
> GLUB!


	3. Autumn Ash

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sup guys! This is Dip here, posting the crappy chapter which he personally wrote because Mitz decided it was a good idea to fly down her stairs. >:|
> 
> GLUB!

The loading screen popped up again, but the gif was a bit different, this time, the Woodsman was chopping full grown tree’s, hacking again and again at the base of its trunk while the loading bar slowly filled up with orange. John drummed his fingers on his knee, watching the bar slowly fill up. Taking the time to look around the room, John let his gaze wander from his screen. The clock showed that it was around 11, and John frowned, looking at the screen, surely he’d been playing for longer than that! It’d felt like hours before he’d finally reached the _first_ checkpoint, even more so for the second because the first boss refused to fight. Maybe the game would pick up the pace later. Letting himself look at Dave, Dave seemed to be in a fight of some sort, he looked kind of irritated and he was practically mashing the ENTER into the keyboard. Red eyes looked up from a bright screen and met blue ones, and Dave cracked a forced smile, letting out a breath of exaggerated calm and carded his fingers through his hair in a frustrated manner, “This _fucking, stupid, game._ ” He groaned out, flopping backwards, arms splayed out beside him. John glanced at the loading screen and it seemed stuck at the moment, so he took the chance to talk (tease) to Dave. “Wow, is the great Dave Strider crying?” he asked with a snarky grin, leaning over the top of screen to see Dave’s expression. His eyes flickered downwards before loking up with a groan, “Fuck off John. The game sucks so bad it makes the tears of criticism come rolling out.”

John snorted but his grin didn’t drop, “So the game’s that bad?”

“Yeah.”

Dave sat back up with a groan, mussing up his hair in frustration, “Yeah. Let’s get this game finished so I can get at least a few winks of sleep tonight.”

“Finally! I really like this game, I don’t know what’s so bad about it!” John huffed, turning his hands to his keyboard. Dave sighed, putting his own hands over his keyboard, “It’s not bad, it’s just,” Dave looked tired, “Draining.”

John looked up from where the loading screen had magically unstuck and was slowly, a little choppily, had started loading again. But Dave didn’t elaborate, he’d just returned to tapping away at his keyboard and sighing heavily. The game caught his attention from wondering about why Dave looked so upset when there was an insistent pinging noise. He dragged his eyes back to the screen and the screen cleared from black.

LOADED!

There was another giant tree this time, and John read the HP bar, ‘Second Boss: Dagger’ A second boss already? John felt like he’d missed something, like it’d just skipped a part in the game. This boss looked a little different from the first one, and it looked almost as if it’d been stuck in autumn, its branches were ablaze with red, orange and yellow leaves, and its face was a ragged line of grim impassiveness, and unlike the first boss, this one seemed ready, arms held out like a goalie. “Woodsman,” it rumbled, at least it wasn’t screeching and shouting like the other one, “I *&&^^&$#$^asked me to&@!!)&*&-but-%&^” John groaned and fought the urge to smack his forehead with the upside of his palm, another whole paragraph of lost storyline! He sighed heavily and pushed the up key, he was going to read the Wikipedia version of this game later, he really wanted to know what they were saying! It just made the game more enjoyable. At his approach, the tree tensed and sort of glitched on the screen. John slowly jogged his character forwards, axe at the ready. “Woodsman…” It warned, watching him come closer, and John stopped, expecting something to happen. Nothing happened. Fuck it. He pressed the up key again and the tree’s arm shimmered and it became a long sharp pole.

Oohh! Wow! John pressed the D button as the tree swung its weapon forwards, but the weapon didn’t clash to the ground like all those other RPG games, it just stopped around mid-chest, and the tree stopped moving. Was it a threat? But god, the tree was fast, almost like it was glitching. John jogged his character backwards, (a new skill he learned a while ago) and the tree raised its weapon, as if satisfied he was retreating, but it was still watching him, like the other boss, and it was downright eerie. But John had to get that Sapling! It was this itching urge that started at the top of his head, it was annoying as hell. John furiously scratched the top of his head, mussing up his hair in the process. Fuck it.

John approached the giant tree again and it immediately reverted from a seemingly relaxed position to a defensive one, holding out its weapon threateningly. John pressed the up key and slowly advanced, and when he was close enough, he pressed the A button sharply, soon following with the D key. The giant tree barely glitched out of the way and retaliated, swinging out its weapon sharply, but the pole whistled past the Woodsman’s head harmlessly. The tree recoiled then as if stung, half holding out its hand to grab him, but John pressed the A button and the tree drew its hand back sharply. It snarled as it clutched its hand to its chest, its HP dropping ever so slightly, and it immediately took a step back, but never moved further than a step away from the opening in the trees. John took a step back and approached the tree again, taking another swing, but there was a clash of sparks as axe connected with pole. Sparks? John summed it up to game effects being out of options for weapon clashes.

The tree shoved him off and Johns character fell backwards, and John quickly clicked the D and his character rolled up again, huh, that was a new transition. His finger found the up key and he was pleasantly surprised to see that his character was moving faster than before, like a slow run now. He whaled on the tree with his newfound ability to move faster, trading hits with it and tapping away at the D key to avoid the flurry of attacks that were returned to him in a blur of sparks. It was hard to keep up with its fast, glitchy moves, always A key, D key, D key, D key, D key, fucking, D key. It was…what was the word Dave had used? It was _draining._ Dealing with bosses which were too fast for the game to catch up with. John’s only advantage was the fact that the tree couldn’t move from the opening, it could certainly chase him for a while, but it never went more than a two foot distance from the opening before returning to the exit. John felt a grin coming up. He couldn’t control it, it just crept onto his face and he was desperately trying to rub down his cheeks in an attempt to loosen the smile. Dave was giving him a look of alarm. John couldn’t help it- the laugh escaped him, a low chuckle at first, which broke out into soft giggles and finally, full out laughter that sounded high pitched and a little squeaky. Dave’s face quickly shifted from alarm to horror and he held out a hand in front of his face and covered his eyes, “John fucking Egbert,” his voice was a little strained, “If you do not stop laughing this second, I will shove my katana up your ass.”

John covered his mouth and tried to suppress his laughter, Dave looked so serious! “Ha ha- Sorry Dave! He he, I just discovered a glitch in the game! Ho ho, and I’m going to use it so I can quickly get to you and end the game! You can just loosen up a bit!”

“ _Loosen up a bit?”_ Ouch, Dave’s voice was shrill, “You’re killing the Sapling’s one and only family John, this isn’t like you.”

“They’re just tree’s Dave, and besides, it’s a game. What’s got you so touchy about this game?” John raised his eyebrow quizzically at Dave who was calming himself down.

“Of course they’re ‘just’ tree’s John. They’re just my family too. And honestly, I don’t know what’s gotten into me, or you for this matter, but its just something about this story. And everything that’s going on-“

“There’s nothing wrong with me!” John pouted, pausing his game to look up at Dave fully, who was watching him from behind his computer screen with his arms crossed over his chest like a petulant child. “Oh yeah Egbert? Prove it. Lick your elbow.”

“The fuck Dave?” John was incredulous, what on Earth was Dave going on about? He sighed, might as well just humor him, if he was going to be this insistent, and besides, he’d agreed to stay up with him to play the game. John pulled his elbow close and stretched out his tongue and licked the edge of his elbow. He looked up, “There! I licked my elbow! What do you want me to do next? Stand on my head?” Dave snorted with laughter and covered his mouth with his fist, coughing violently into it, but the smile was definitely at the edge of his lips. “Yeah, you’re definitely the same ol’ Mr. Egdork, King of the fucking idiots. Wait, lets capitalize that i.” Dave was smiling now, one of his rare smiles that he hardly ever showed around him. John felt his face heat up from the embarrassment of having done something rather stupid. “Shut up!” It was his turn to cover his face at Dave’s small chuckles, that asshole! But he was smiling himself and soon they were laughing together like nothing had happened. John sighed and Dave sighed as well, with a groan in it as he looked back at his own paused screen. “Let’s get this shit over with.” John nearly said something, but Dave looked tired, so he shut up and said, “Agreed.”

The tree was swaying like a game character, the default movement a character does when they’re talking but it wasn’t saying anything. It was silent, mouth a crude slash of a grim expression. _Might as well get this over with,_ John’s mind whispered; besides it was getting late and John wanted to see the end of this thing. He pressed the up key and was pleasantly surprised to see that his character was a little speedier, he was actually running now! The tree seemed surprised too, if the little twitch it made was anything to go by, and in no time at all, John’s character was in front of the tree and swinging his axe forward as John pressed the A key sharply. It was a glancing blow on one of the trees roots as it tried to dodge, but seeming to not want to leave the entrance unattended. It took the blow and a gash appeared on it limb and it health plummeted sharply, but considerably less than the first one’s. Huh. This one was a lot quieter too, the other one had been murmuring and shouting and crying and screaming… _screaming?_ Nah. Couldn’t be. Back to the tree now, it was kneeling on one root and wavering, like it was falling asleep and John could see its health slowly inching down, _too slowly._ John moved his character in, dodging around the wild swings the tree was attempting with its large pole, and John nicked its other root, and it flinched, taking another wild swing, and John’s character hurtled backwards. John groaned, he’d missed the chance to press the D key and he’d paid for it, his character’s HP had gone down sharply and it was slowly moving down, just like the tree’s. He was bleeding out to death. John moved his character a step forwards and the tree held up its sword again, this tree certainly wasn’t holding back on its hits. John clicked the up and right key, moving at an awkward angle, but he was trying to circle the tree, but it kept its eyes on him, sword following his every move. He moved in for a strike, but the tree easily deflected his blow by angling its pole, the axe glanced off with a shower of sparks and the Woodsman’s HP fell slightly. John fell back, mentally groaning, he lost HP every time he tried to take a hit, and it was steadily draining every time he moved.

Better make it quick.

It was intense battle against time, John was moving his character as slowly as he could, taking short, halting steps towards the tree and dodging the swings made towards him, losing precious time and health. Time. John could barely feel the sweat that rolled down his forehead. He needed time. His fingers were shaking with anxiety as he tapped away at his keyboard, making every move, every dodge, absolutely worth it. Oh fuck, not another boulder.

He was so close. So close to death. The woodsman was moving slowly now, no longer as fast. But John could deal. It was as fast as he’d been in the beginning. The tree was beginning to tire as well, its swings were less accurate and it seemed to have trouble aiming. Most of its hits now were barely touching him now. John had slowly wheedled out its health, taking swings when he could, taking advantage of the fact it couldn’t move. Then it slumped, collapsing against the entrance and it went limp, the great head-branches swaying and the autumn leaves slowly withered away and crumbled to dust.

USE THE ITEM: MATCHES (5) ?

Fuck yes.

ENTER

It happened as if in slow motion, the tree’s eyes slowly snapped open and raised its arm, its head going ablaze in a flare of autumn colour as the match touched its woody skin, its arm moving forward, faster than ever before, and thrusting it hard into the Woodsman’s gut. “If I die,” it rumbled out, “I will at least take you with me.” Then it crumbled to ash. The Woodsman’s health dropped until it was flashing, just barely gone. No, no, he didn’t even get past this checkpoint! He was going to have to start from the beginning if he died here! He moved the Woodsman at a staggering pace towards the entrance behind the giant tree.

PRESS A KEY TO PASS THROUGH

John quickly pressed the A key twice, just like the first time, and the Woodsman deftly cut two gashes into the tree’s side.

PRESS W KEY

John didn’t even wait for the prompt to appear before he was pressing the W key as soon as his finger found purchase to the button. The Woodsman wheeled back and kicked it down with his boot. The tree groaned and fell with a crash.

YOU HAVE REACHED A CHECKPOINT!

**Author's Note:**

> Check out my tumblr for updates and stories that I'm working on!
> 
> clicksandspaces.tumblr.com


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